Far Away & Never by Ramsey Campbell

Author:Ramsey Campbell [Campbell, Ramsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Necronomicon Press
Published: 2015-11-05T21:00:00+00:00

The Mouths of Light

Ryre couldn't tell when he ceased to be pursued by anything but echoes. When he halted his steed, the echoes died reluctantly away. The dark held him like a fist, enormous yet so close it crushed him. It must have proved too much for his pursuers, as it was threatening to do to him. The cavern was huge as night, but far darker. He seemed not to have seen daylight for days.

Once he moved off the echoes returned, fluttering eagerly out of their lairs. Echoes stirred wakefully in the distance that was the underside of the roof, water dripped relentlessly in holes so deep in stone they were beyond echoing. He tried to hear the sounds as his steed's great veined ears must hear them, as it led him through the cavern toward the hope of light beyond.

It was no use. Everything reminded him of his folly. Had he grown so fond of the slave town of Gaxanoi that he had had to go back? For wounding a slave-driver, the priests and their bullies had given him to the vampires of the forest. Victorious but weakened, he'd made his way back toward Gaxanoi: where else could he have found a steed? Though he had fed himself strength—he had eaten what meat he could kill on the journey—it had been winter before he'd arrived.

The echoes were mocking him. They and his memories were calling him fool. For a moment it seemed that riders were waiting ahead in the dark to ambush him. They must be echoes: how could his pursuers have outdistanced him? He would have seen their torches.

Could he not have taken the steed and left Gaxanoi before they knew he was there? But he hated slavery, for he had suffered it himself. He had cut down the guards before the slave-house of Gaxanoi, and had told the slaves they had only to break their chains to be free. He'd brought them metal bars, he'd shown them how to lever open the links of the chains—but none of them would. Where could they go? They would only be recaptured. Slavery had bound their minds more securely than their bodies. He had ridden away, enraged by their apathy, by his powerlessness. Before he'd reached the edge of the town he had heard sounds of pursuit. The guards had been found.

He wouldn't go back into the forest. He had ridden along the coast, toward the mountains which plunged into the sea. He should have been able to lose his pursuers in one of the passes, or to ambush them there, but all of the passes were blocked by snow. He'd have to go through the caverns, to trust the story he'd heard that the main cavern went all the way through the mountains.

And now he could only trust his steed. It at least was not confused by the echoes, the echoes which jabbed at his mind, already raw with memories. If he had not felt half suffocated by the dark he would have been less ready to entrust his safety.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.